At the invitation of the Schirn, the artist group 'et al.*' has developed a special project for the exhibition 'Surreal Objects. Three-dimensional Works from Dali' to Man Ray'. 'En Passant' is an installation visitors pass through before they enter the exhibition. This environment will engross the viewers in a strange world of light, sound, and objects. The group of artists is transforming the entire staircase of the Schirn for the show.
Curated by Ingrid Pfeiffer
and Lisa Beißwanger
At the invitation of the Schirn, the artist group et al.* has developed a special project for the
exhibition “Surreal Objects. Three-dimensional Works from Dalí to Man Ray”: “EN PASSANT”
is an installation visitors pass through before they enter the exhibition. This environment will
engross the viewers in a strange world of light, sound, and objects. The group of artists is
transforming the entire staircase of the Schirn for the show.
Their work will also speak to the
organs of perception: a golden fountain, a suspended ceiling, the careful lighting and its
dramatic program, unusual sounds, and the manipulation of the visitors’ sense of touch and
spatial perception guarantee surprise effects and an atmosphere of eager expectation
regarding the historical exhibition. Slashed bodies and cut off heads take over Surrealists
preoccupation concerning the relation of rationality and power, money circulation and
massacre. The artist group’s exploration of Surrealism as their subject also includes the study of certain
literary sources. et al.* have given the room installation a triple-spaced graphic main title: En Passant
The blanks in the graphic title of the work offer room for associations, such as with the French
word “acéphale,” which Georges Bataille chose for the title of the magazine he published from
1936 to 1939; the title page of each of the five issues was illustrated with the picture of a
headless body by André Masson. The headlessness evoked this way hinted at the Surrealists’
programmatic objection to reason, particularly by Bataille and his fellow-traveler Michel Leiris.
The artist group et al*. also relies on physical experience and psychological effects for their
Schirn project.
In their statement on the work, the artists hint at their influences and reveal their art-historical
references: “In proceeding up the stairs of the Schirn Kunsthalle we would like you to imagine
that you stand in front of the painting by Antoine Caron ‘Massacre of the Triumvirate’ from
1566. A ritual of decapitation increases the value of the aurei (Roman golden coins). As in the
abattoir, one keeps count by the head of cattle, the head of lamb, the head of pig, though it is
the meat of the body that nourishes a nation. We are calling reference to Michel Leris's
obsession with self-decapitation, paired with Bataille's erotic fantasies of sacrifice placed in an
ordered system of bloodied chaos. The massacre, once depicted, will find its movement and
purpose through the surrealist jest at reality and L'amour fou.
The artists’ work is closely connected with the mise-en-scène character of the Surrealists’
exhibition practice, which provided a means for deliberately shifting the boundaries between
exhibition venue and space of experience, leaving viewers in the dark about whether the thing
they were spatially and physically confronted with was a work of art or something to be used,
touched, or changed. While objects had been presented mostly as traditional works of art until
then, they became parts of an interactive installation in the probably most spectacular
Surrealist show, the “Exposition internationale du Surréalisme” of 1938. Even before entering
the exhibition, visitors were confronted with Salvador Dalí’s “Taxi pluvieux / Rain Taxi” (1938);
the location of the show itself had been turned into a grotto by Marcel Duchamp: 1,200 bags,
allegedly filled with coals, but actually stuffed with shredded paper, hung from its ceiling.
Loudspeakers emanated oppressive sounds, and a smell of coffee beans wafted through the
rooms. This unique ambience blurred ghost train and living room, merged high and low, true
and false, public space, brothel, and private apartment, dream and reality. The classical
presentation of art was suspended in this exhibition, the show itself turning into the work of art.
ET AL.* The artist group with members coming from Frankfurt, New York and Paris, made an
appearance in Frankfurt last year with their latest project “Haunted House”. In the best
Surrealist manner, they transformed a building in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen into a “haunted
house.” This was done using US tropes of Halloween to allude to a historically accurate love
affair between the architect LeCorbusier and the dancer Josephine Baker, reimagining the
sterile relation between the modern and the body.
Press Office: Dorothea Apovnik (head Press/PR)
Karin Bellmann (press officer), Markus Farr (press officer)
E-mail: presse@schirn.de
Press preview: Thursday, February 10, 2011, 11 a.m.
Schirn Kunsthalle
Römerberg, D-60311 Frankfurt.
HOURS: Tue, Fri – Sun 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., Wed and Thur 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.
ADMISSION: 9 €, reduced 7 €, family ticket 18 €; combination ticket including admission
to the exhibition “Eugen Schönebeck. 1957–1967” 14 €, reduced 10 €; free admission for
children under eight years of age, groups of students and kids with advance booking 1 €.